Chains Of Pride

The area in front of Rikona fluctuated violently as she willed the atoms and molecules of the air and all else to alchemise into the creation of her construct, Perennial's Mechanism.

It soon began to take shape, and though this may have taken a while to describe, this was all happening with nary a time to think for everyone else. The high guard that saw what Rikona was doing, though he wasn't sure what it was, was positive it wouldn't end well for him once she was done.

"Move out!! All of you stop her!" he quickly ordered for the Taliums to charge after Rikona, seeing her as the biggest threat here. The Taliums that he brought with him took action with not a word spoken.

"Protect Master Rikona!!" Yang Min shouted at the top of her lungs, spurring the Taliums that accompanied her and Rikona into action.

There were considerably more Taliums on the opposing side, the only consolation was that there was no so-called high levelled Taliums with them, all Taliums described as high-levelled was sent to HQ. The high levelled Taliums who the association had were not ones who returned to the origin or anything. It was more of a quasi awakened state.

Think of it as returning to the origin, but only reaching halfway, so the blood origin would still be empty. However, even if it's empty, even with them not genuinely entering into the realm of a Genesis, their power was still much greater than those who hadn't.

These were the ones the association called high levelled Taliums. These Taliums could at the very least levitate and so on, for them to even perform a semblance of their ability beyond that, they would have to be free, not like the association would ever know. Treating Taliums like puppets to be controlled, of course their true nature could never be uncovered.

Whoosh!!

The Taliums rushed towards each other and the shockwaves spread out, shaking not just the room, but the entire building they were in.

Boom!!

"Numani, get back!! We can't have anything happening to you, you're too important to us." Yang Min was shouting orders where she could while she held off two Taliums on her own. She was hovering in the air and brought with her some special throwing knives…many throwing knives, her expression impassive, as she fought with her two opponents trying not to kill them.

"What?! Hell no, I wanna help, and there's no way I'm gonna stay on the sidelines and watch everyone else fight!" Numani was trying her best with the one Talium she was engaging with.

It was less like fighting and more like flailing around angrily, but with the characteristic strength of a Talium behind those flails. She surprisingly managed to land some lucky blows, incapacitating her less than fortunate foe.

"Don't argue with me!! This isn't a simple brawl, we're not trying to kill these Taliums, we intend to save them!!"

Shuu!! Fwish!!

Yang Min was brandishing knives that she kept pulling out of god knows where before sending them in the directions of the two Taliums she fought. Eventually, she was able to pierce and sever the tendons of the two Taliums, rendering them incapable of fighting.

Even though she herself is a Talium, Yang Min's strengths lie more in her speed than her strength. Hence using force to take them out was not really her style; besides, she was aware that either Rikona or Kura was able to get them healed, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

All around Yang Min, watched as her group of around 7 Taliums were barely holding their own against the 15 or so Taliums under the association's control. She saw how lifeless they looked, knowing she was the same only months prior.

This ticked her off even more, her fury started to rise to unspeakable levels, but before she could fly off in a fit to take further actions, a sound halted her movements.

C-Click, tock, tick clack.

The unique sounds of gears turning, reverberated throughout the surroundings. Yang Min and her group forced off the Taliums they were fighting and created some distance between them. They all gathered behind Rikona, whose eyes were flashing a dangerous bronze glow.

Suspended in front of her, appeared to be the insides of a clock, it was a combination of gears, cogs and wheels.

It made one think of the unfinished insides of a clock, but, at the same time, it appeared complete. Yes, this is what it was, complete yet incomplete, like time run awry.

Though the opposing Taliums were under the control of the association, they still hesitated going forward. There existed a kind of instinctual fear in them towards one who had ascended not one, but two realms like Rikona had.

"Take time."

A calm and sweet voice spread throughout the room. Even the explosions that occasionally took place could no longer be heard.

Some of the gears and cogs that were turning in one direction had suddenly paused before rotating in reverse, going against the rest. Yet, it never once showed an ounce of unrest in its operation, it was quite odd.

Suddenly the weirdest thing happened, the Taliums, high guard and even the personnel in the surveillance room all froze. That's right, Rikona's construct was one of massive implications, among other capabilities, it held the ability to affect time itself, but only to a certain degree.

'Take Time' was an attack that quite literally took the time (but only temporarily) from the target(s). Rendering them and the space they were in frozen, locked off from the normal flow of time.

Of course, such a reality-bending power exhausted a lot of energy, and because of this, Rikona didn't dare to linger for too long. The sweat began to collect upon her forehead, a testament to the strain she was under.

"Yang Min, while I've got the rest of the Taliums immobilised, break the devices on the ones that are still active, we're gonna do this one by one till we're all done here." Rikona imposed her order to the young Talium, which Yang Min wasted no time in carrying out.

A light flashed in Rikona's eyes while she watched Yang Min's every action. She fine tuned her control to bring the Talium halfway to the normal flow of time, just enough so that outside interference could still affect her.

There was a sense of accomplishment when another of their own was freed and not just in Rikona but also to the other Taliums who came with her, like a shackle being loosened.

However, Rikona's eyes narrowed when she saw the new design of the device used to control the Taliums. She opened her mouth to say something, but she was too late, Yang Min already used her knife to sever then destroy the device.

Chichi, c-chi-chi!!!

A weird sound came from the Talium whose controller was just destroyed. There was a small piece of the apparatus still inside the Talium, it began to vibrate at an unimaginable speed before it released a small muffled explosion. The Taliums head only bulged slightly, before blood and thick chunks of flesh started to leak out of the Talium's seven orifices.

[This would be the mouth, the two ears, two eyes and the two nostrils]

The scene stunned not just Yang Min, but Rikona and the remaining Taliums who were not under the Construct's effect. In an instant Rikona released the hold she levied over the enemy, her eyes now bloodshot.

"Boom!!"

The explosions on the outside now sounded with no trouble. However, these explosions no longer mattered to anyone, all anyone could bother with was Rikona, whose entire face contorted in rage.

When the high guard, and of course the Taliums, along with the guards in the room, the idiot, uh, basehead…I mean the idiot, and Machyal were all released. They evinced shock at the sudden development, a dead Talium? How? Suddenly the broken pieces of the controller lay in front of Yang Min, whose entire face was pale.

A thought came to Machyal, he didn't know how, but he and the rest were somehow exempt from witnessing the failure of a rescue attempt.

"Machyal!! Tempt me no further than this! Speak!!"

Rikona levitated off the ground, and her pressure and aura gushed out, free of all restraints. Enemies and allies alike were forced to their knees, the weaker ones to their faces under the suppression she exuded.

Both Yang Min and Numani was frightened to the core, they had never seen a truly angry Rikona before, but not more than Machyal whom she had targeted. He had seen what crazy did to these sisters, and he wanted no part of it.

Little did he know that while the younger one could let in crazy at times, with the older sister, it was more like crazy came in, bought the house, and had kids.

"Damn it! Where are my reinforcements!" Machyal was talking through clenched teeth, as his face formed a relationship with the steel floor. He didn't know how, but he could somehow feel Rikona getting closer

The room lit up in the glow of her bronze coloured aura, her pressure wasn't getting any weaker either. Her power was on the rise, while the construct was following eerily behind her, the chains clinking along as they did.

"What just happened? I'll consider killing you faster if you tell me!" She asked him the question as it ate away at her, why did a Talium who she attempted to free just die like that?

"I-I don't know what y-you're ta-"

Bam!!

"Don't lie to me, now speak before I lose the last shred of my sanity human!!" Before he could finish, Rikona's anger caused the pressure to double down. Not to mention humans, even the Taliums were practically sprawled across the floor.

"W-What's happening?" Fear gripped Numani's heart, she didn't know why they were being suppressed by Rikona as well.

"Urkh! M-Master R-Rikona," Yang Min tried to call out to her, but her voice was too low to get through.

Some distance away, Kura who was kicking a.s.s and taking names suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. She could feel the rising aura and pressure of her sister from where she was, despite being quite some distance away.

"That's not ri- Oh no!" She had an idea of what was happening and couldn't waste any more time. "Hey Gin, I've gotta go, there's no time to explain. I've already handled those Taliums so secure them and wait till I get back. She quickly gestured to the 16 odd unconscious Taliums laying across the field

"Hey, Wa-" He tried to call out to her, but she was already gone, flying over at breakneck speed to reach her sister. "Seriously, what, do I take these Taliums back? Whatever, guys let's clean up."

Kura knew she was probably the only one who could stop Rikona from losing herself to the fall, so she pushed her advance to the limit!

Back in the surveillance room, Machyal who was now under extreme strain knew that lying at this point would lead to nothing good. So, under the risk of angering her more, he decided to answer.

"W-WE…after the last few T-Taliums you f-freed, the associations made plans to make s-sure you didn't get any stronger from u-us…ugh!" He was struggling to speak under the weight, but she never relaxed it.

"S-So o-our tech team…m-made sure that any attempt to tamper with the device would result in their deaths." He stopped speaking at this moment, part of it was because he was done and the other part was because his strength was all but spent.

Crack!!

Rikona's knuckles cracked, as blood dripped from them they were clenched so tight. "Y-You hateful, vicious, foul, morally bankrupt infestation of a species!! T-This is-…I-I!" She could barely speak up to a point, but after a while, her aura exploded! His body was ripped from the floor and forced to face her.

"W-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!!!!"